Thursday, October 23, 2008

10:30 AM at the Bean. Lots of fun last weekend. Only Trev and Alex got wet and they wern't technically on the ride yet. It was tough looking at Alex in that wet, blue, Easter Bunny like outfit, a little better when he dried out. Lockie was still attacking too much. Nice to have Eric Bakke join us.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

I had a blast contesting the Blow Street Cross race today. My entry wasn't without its controversy...I had to deal with my bike being called a mountain bike, despite it not having suspension or disc-brakes (they said that I needed drops, but I think secretly they were afraid that if I won, I'd make people look bad riding a 25kg beater). I was prepared to argue the point, even though my bike was probably going to sulk after being implied it was "beefy", and it sounded as though they were let me, but a couple of dudes were awesome enough to offer their rides. Austin Miller (bici) offered first, cheers buddy, but Lorie Holte (BowCycle) ended up lending me his, and he found tools to switch his clip-in pedals for my flats (old school, baby!). Lorie, you're a friggen champ!

Despite my plan to get the jump on everybody with my borrowed feather-weight rig and no need to clip in, it didn't quite work that way, and I found myself bringing up the rear pretty much straight away. Negotiating the first hurdle solidified that position. But I managed to make it through the first lap without quitting (although I was tempted!) and moved up to 3rd last, woohoo! I almost made it up to 5th last, then crashed, and hung in there for the remainder to get 4th last. Big thanks to inspiration yelled from track-side by Mike G (Speed Theory), D'arcy (Bici) and Jess (Team Holmes).

All in all, super fun - kinda like crits, but you bleed less when you crash. :)

So I just read that Trev came a solid 9th in the Elite category. Way to go!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Today I rolled out of my driveway at 10am into a blizzard in the sky and rivers crossing the roads on the ground. By the time I had decended from my house by the prisons to the river, I was covered in snow, filthy, soaking wet, and frozen.

I continued riding to the Bean only so I could have a warm place to sit and call my wife to pick me up. By the time I got to Bowness, it had stopped snowing/raining. By the time I got to the Bean it was sunny out.

I met the 4 dudes there and they were dry, in happy moods, and ready to hammer. My Gortex winter boots were full of water and didn't have any holes to drain ?!?

We then laid down over 100km and it turned out to be a wicked ride. Thanks guys for making me not quit and putting up with my endless rants about how soaked I was.

When I got home, I called for the scale, and was 155.2lbs with clothes on, and 147.6lbs after I had stripped. Wow.

Friday, October 17, 2008

First off congratulations to all of you who competed in Kona. It's great to hear the stories from all races, no matter what your day had in store.

For those of you looking for a good cross country race in the near future may I suggest Stewart Cup. The race is Saturday Oct 25 and is provincial championships for all age groups. Please see attached link. Entries are due Monday Oct. 20.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Meet at the bean at 10:30AM. Lets try and get a few more guys out. Last Saturday was a ton of fun mostly due to Trev's route curiosity that kept us traveling up and down fresh new roads. We finally had to say "no" to going to look at some mansion he and Alex found on a previous ride. I was four hours on the bike by the time I got home. On top of that Lockie kept pushing the pace so I was trashed.

Well I started the off-season/ski season about 42.1 kilometers early. It would be great to just forget the bad races, move on and not even think about them. This was a race I could put in that category but I guess we need to learn from mistakes and try and improve ourselves from all experiences. Or something like that…

Race Report: Well the swim wasn't great. It was a rough start, even treading water for 10minutes was pretty congested but when the gun went off it really got wild. I had improved my swimming this year, swimming 1:04 at IMC was a break through and I thought I would add about five minutes to that with no wet suit. Nope. I was hitting it after I found some clear water and I thought I had to be up near the front when it happened… I was passed by a brest stroker! Not even kidding. This guy would was huge, and he would breast stroke along and was moving ‘fast’, then switch to free style and drop way back, anyway bad sign. Then I run into the back of a guy who stopped to eat a power bar. Seriously, in the swim. His wrapper floated right by me. OK swim 1:13. Ouch. but time to get on the bike.Bike was easy to find again. Here came mistake one: make up for a bad swim by riding a little above race pace. I didn’t feel good but I was sure I always feel like that starting the bike so just get going and it will come around. Mistake two: have a time goal without considering conditions. I wanted to start the run at around 6hrs into race. Although math is almost impossible when exercising I though that would mean about a 4:45ride. Things were going along fine; I was picking up wheel suckers like I had a “free ride” sign on my back. I never usually care too much but I had one German guy in a bright green race suit with compression socks, compression arm coolers, and I am sure a compression speedo under the suit that I had trouble dropping. We had a good argument at one point where I was trying to make fun of his costume and he was yelling at me in German from my back wheel. Anyway, I was starting to crack a bit from the wind and heat heading up to Hawi. I went through my first nutrition bottle way faster that usual and needed bottle two and my salt pills from special needs. I hit special needs and they couldn’t find my stuff. I even stopped and waited for a few minutes well they looked. No luck. Mistake three: I am not good at problem solving I decided to get a lot of gel at the next aid station and try to catch back up on calories. I took three or four gels and tried to get back on pace. The gels stayed down for about ten minutes and came back angry. I have puked off the bike countless times before but this was different. I had to stop and really get it all out. Anyway, long story short I tried over and over to get something in and everything was coming back, by the time I hit town I was along way down in the well. I saw my wife and pulled over to let her know I was in trouble.T2: Made it about 20feet and had to sit down to avoid falling down. I laid down for a bit and couldn’t get moving. Done-zo.

I really, truly admire people who can go out and suffer through the hard days and get to the finish line. I have seen champions reduced to hobbling and not quit. Its honorable. I don’t think I have that drive. At home feeling great I would say I would never quit, but there and then I never even had a choice to make.We watched my brother run a 2:59 marathon to finish up a great race, celebrated after, and went on to have a great vacation.

So, get em next time.

Thanks Trev and everyone at Speed Theory for letting me write the blog. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The weather was chilly and feet were frozen but I had a blast anyway. I ended up 7th place in the Master Women and battled out most of the race with Carolyn Soules but she got me in the end. The course had a lot of fast flat sections, one area where there were logs and you had to do a run-up, two barriers and a very crazy technical section off camber. To be honest, I really have liked the Calgary courses and really did not like this course as much. I found the Calgary courses more technical, challenging and exciting. This was a roadie course and kind of boring.

On Sunday, in the second race (same course) I ended up 4th and felt better than on Saturday. Part of it was that when I arrived at the venue to look at the National results from the previous day, they had me in last spot and down a lap. They were reluctant to hear my appeal until the winner said noone had been lapped and the riders who were behind me confirmed my story. After that they pulled the officials lap sheet and saw that I in fact did place 7th. It made me race harder as I felt I needed to prove myself. So far, I have yet to be placed properly in the cyclocross races in the race results. It has not bothered me until now as at Nationals I don't think the results should wrong. Expecially when they check your helmet and bike twice to ensure you are completely legal, have a row call and assignment of lanes, and at least 10 officials on the course recording your number on sections of the race course. I raced hard and just want my placing to be accurate at the National level. Sorry for venting!

This coming up weekend is another two races here in Calgary. It will be my last two races. I am eager to race hard to finish things up for the season. Great venue on Saturday at COP!

In Kona, Kyle finished with a respectable 9:35, with a tough last half of the marathon,while Ryan Cain, Dallas' brother finished with a time of 9:57, but closed it of with a 2:59 run !From the looks of it, Dallas was DNF, but he may have lost his chip, so we'll have to wait until the morning.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Wow what a fast race, pancake flat, hot super strong cross winds (first time for wind down here). Two of the top three guys from the TT hit the front at about the 100 metre mark and started hammering (remember the guy who won the 40K TT did it in 53 minutes) I hung on for about 3 laps, looked at my HR monitor which was showing 187, that is WAY in the red for me. So after about 10 minutes I was thinking I should really drop out and save some shred of legs for the RR. But just about that time the race desintigrated into about 4 groups, the lead 3, me and 2 others and a bunch of stragglers. I could only hold on to the two I was with for about a lap and ended up with another guy in the 3rd group on the road, we picked up another guy and worked together to the end. We got lapped by the lead three right as we hit the finish line to start our bell lap. I didn't contest the "sprint" for 6, 7 as the guys I was with probably could have dropped me if they had wanted to, but I think they were happy to keep me around as I was at least contributing to the group effort, versus simply hanging on.

Insanely fast and hard, not ideal prep for the Road Race, we will see how that one goes. Something I have observed down here the Americans are really strong on the flats, I am riding with guys we are generally a lot bigger, more power type riders than what we would typically see in Canada. There are some guys with major engines at least in my age group/ability group. The way the games work, they have age groups from 50+ at every 5 years, then within the age groups they have ability levels, if you are a licensed racer you are in the Elite group for your age group (likely the only time I will race Elite!).

I did the course in 59:44 took 12 seconds off my previous best over the same distance, but I screwed up the turn around point, had to turn around again and go another couple hundred meters down the road. Totally my fault as a rider needs to know the course, but in fairness it was poorly marshalled, the guy was directing me to turn, not to go down to the turn around point, if that wasn't bad enough on the last big hill (about 8k from the end) I threw the chain so I had to get off, put it back on, get back on the bike and try to get back up to speed and into the tempo again, damn.

Bottomline I probably cost myself 30 - 45 second, which wouldn't, however, have made a huge difference in my placement, the guys are a lot stronger on the flats than the climbs! The winner broke the old record for the course by more than 3 minutes, did in just over 53 minutes (we're talking Copeland fast and these guys are all 50 - 54) the guy who was second also broke the old record by about 2 minutes, so a medal wasn't in the cards, even if I had ridden a minute faster, which would have been my absolute max.

Tomorrow in the crit and Friday is the RR, two big climbs (one of them is basically the Killer Kilometer, but 2 k long) and the final 5k is descending down the HC route, which features speed bumps and a huge off camber turn that has a history of sending riders into the sagebrush, cactus & rocks. Fortunately that part of the course is a closed road for the race!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Mike is currently abroad racing like crazy. Here is his race report from the first day (yesterday), today is the TT.Here is a link to 2 pictures he took of the area.---------------------------It is hard to describe how beautiful this place is, imagine someone dropped a town in the middle of the Grand Canyon. The 1st picture is the view as you hit the finish line for the TT, the second is looking down the middle section of the hill climb. I just finished my 1st race, ended up 4th in my category. The guy who won is one of the guys I raced against in BC when I was on holidays. He beat the old course record by almost 2 minutes! I was a minute off the old record, 25 seconds out of 3rd and about a minute up on 5th. Tomorrow is the TT which is my focus race. I held back a bit today, as in didn't bury myself as I want to have some legs for tomorrow. Mind you I thinkTrev might just have been at the side of the course, about 1/2 up just after I passed my minute man a guy said "Go for something speci al today" now if that doesn't get you jacked (at least for a minute) Michael

I would really apreciate if everyone could sign up as soon as possible. This will give me an idea of the numbers of our returning members so I can start planning bigger and better things for next year. Feel free to leave comments in the registration 'notes' section for constructive critisism, helpful ideas, cool ideas, etc.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Saturday evening marked Calgary's first ever evening cyclocross event. Hosted by the fine folks of the Bow Cycle team and held on the UofC grounds this race may have eclipsed the noteworthy hype of it's namesake. The Dark Night cyclocross goes down as the most fun I have had at a race in ages. More on this later.

Many of us can remember the mountain biking heyday with personalites like Shaun Palmer, Missy Giove, Ned Overand. Gravity cycling has quieted down in years past and endurance MTB has taken a new flavour with events like Transrockies. But Cyclocross is a sport for rockstars. I cannot put it any other way. Venues that are spectator friendly and accessible and then throw in a DJ with some thumping tunes, hot chocolate, and a bunch of awesome/rowdy spectators and I dare you to show me a better time. I arrived early enough to catch up with Sandra and take a few laps around the course. Sandra is a seasoned CX expert in my books, she covered the basics and had some excellent tips. She also witnessed my bailout over the barricades and didn't laugh too hard. Those of us that have been racing on the road exlcusively were in for a treat as CX courses seem to love off camber turns, 90 degree bends, loop-de-loopy things and sand pits. Clearly not normal features of our typical race diet in the summer. Did I mention the hills? Short-sharp gut busting climbs. I might still be picking some of the course tape out of my teeth.

But wait, I need to digress on the technical side of CX here. Parts of the course demand that you get off your bike. Unless you're Hans Rey. Chances are you're not so you have to head into the obstacles at breakneck speed, clip out at a full sprint, run and then get back on your bike. See, that's the tricky part, getting back on. The CX experts can do this in the blink of an eye and it involves jumping like superman and catching the saddle on your thigh, clipping in and sprinting for glory. Well, some spectators were in for a treat on the third lap coming out of the sand pits because I missed my remount something fierce and squarely crushed my manhood. Another important skill is the bike carry. Shelly was out to yell and scream for Sandra and the speed theory crew. Needless to say, Shelly was a drill Sargeant in a previous life and from the sidelines she convinced me to carry my bike like a man instead of a girly man. Many thanks for that. Mike Chui and Mike Healy were out hooting and hollering as well. Chui kept me going in the sand pit.

The race itself was a riot. I haven't worried about a hole shot in 5 years and definitely missed it. Not that it mattered, CX races are all about knowing when to hold'em, fold'em and lay 'em down. If you're not in the first group you're not seeing those guys unless they pop. I was happy to chase people down and I think I exacted a wee bit of revenge on Darcy of BiciSport for his beatdown at the HC provincial (Darcy, we are going to tear up velocity in the spring). As well, I managed to pass Kevin of Calgary Cycle (he's a notable XC guy but nearly dislocated his shoulder in a lap one pile up) but he caught me in the last lap. I will say this, it's a workout like nothing else. I haven't hurt that hard for 40 minutes ever. There's no rythym, no steady pain that I am used to in road racing. By the second half of the race I was barely able to get into the big ring at all, I am ashamed. ;-)

Post race, I bumped into Slayer Dan, T-rev, Jenn and the lovely little Jaya. I want to get Dan on a CX bike because I think he would destroy people. After watching T-rev and his blinky lights of doom chase people down I wobbled home and iced down my bruises. What a night.

I think it is going to snow here so time to get going. Packing everything up tonight and heading out in the morning with a final long ride. We are flying out of Spokane which is about 200km south of us. I am planning on riding for about three hours and if everything goes smooth the wife will pick me up along the way. This plan has huge potential to fail as she can be easily distracted and lose track of time. I won’t go into detail but fingers crossed anyway.

This is my second trip to Kona. I went to last year unsure of what to expect and really just excited about the experience. The whole scene there is wild, everyone looks fast and there is some serious attitude. I had never seen anyone wearing a heart rate monitor and speedo and not been totally joking before but low and behold… they were everywhere. This year I barrowed a speedo and threw in the hr strap and the first blog post from Hawaii is going to be a picture of a 6’5” 170 pound lanky white dude doing high-knee sprints on Alii Drive. Hold your breath.

Anyway, last year Trev had told me to expect a slow swim time. I usually do anyway so my swim expectation was low. I started near the front and after a very rough swim came out of the water feeling pretty good, looked at the watch for a 1:14ish time. Meh, not too bad. I was bike racked out on the end of the pier with all the people around my age group. I went through the change tent and was yelling up to the volunteer my race number so they could direct me to my bike. The guy kind of laughs as I come around the fence and says “it’s probably that one”, …. Friking only bike left! “Where is everyone?” … “Long gone bud”. Tough start, welcome to the big leagues. The rest of the day was great though. I had some trouble on the bike and then the run went well, but just being there was pretty cool.

This year, I am looking forward to the whole week and everything that this race is about but I am not going just for the experience. No excuses, I have had a good build up, no injuries, I want to race this race. I want to get out of the water with the main field, have a Speed Theory worthy bike split, and run the run like a runner. Go till you Blow.

I cannot believe it took me until almost my 47th birthday to find this sport called cyclocross. What an absolute blast!! My season started with trying out the Tuesday night races, and basically getting lapped twice by the guys, falling over on steep climbs, figuring out how to mount my bike at high speed, becoming fearless at descents on slippery grass, learning proper tire pressure, and what gears to use. With practise in hand, I spent the last two weekends racing on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday, adding to the difficulty and challenge of cyclocross, was a night race. What fun that was! I was scared out of my mind but had my best race yet. I managed not to be lapped and finished up about mid-pack. Each race I have gotten stronger, smarter, and my skills are improving. I have gained lots of confidence over the last week and am geared toward having a great race at Nationals on October 11 in Edmonton.

This is truly the best sport I have ever participated in. Every weekend I am so eager to race and to put myself to the test. If you have not seen this sport, it is an awesome spectator sport as well. If you are eager to try the sport, the Tuesday night races are a great introduction. Hurry though, there are only a few left.

Trevor and Rob raced awesome. Trevor held his own with the Elite guys and Rob was with the Sport men and had his first introduction to the race. He said he had a blast. And of course, I cannot wipe the smile off my face from taking up this sport.

We are currently awaiting Rob and Sandra's accounts of 'Dark Knight' Cross that took place Sat. night. As for me, I managed not to get lapped by the skin of my teeth, but finished the event on the current lap, which I am pretty pumped about.Photos courtesy of Bill Quinney's Flickr site